This project explores the very specific reference of the Middle Eastern dining table, evoking as it does for me a sense of identity and belonging and explores an AI image generators response to such specificity, attempting to steer it towards nuance. Artificial intelligence cannot think abstractly. It is unable to adapt to changed circumstances. How does Midjourney, a text-to-image generator respond with specificity to personal themes, when it cannot think outside the box?  Beyond its own references? 

For me, as a second-generation immigrant, this sense of belonging has never been tied to a location but rather to a person. My mother is my home. She provides the comfort and belonging that I have never felt geographically. When thinking of the senses that I associate with my mother, I thought of the strong smell of middle eastern spices, the sight of my mother kneading dough, the sound of pots and pans, at 6. The dining table is where my experience of these senses is rooted. I have subconsciously defined it as an object that encapsulates the comfort and belonging that I haven’t felt in relation to my surroundings. These threads have been explored further within a logbook, throughout the project. The key terms that identify my understanding of belonging are home, mother, middle eastern, cooking and the dining table. The project aimed to respond to these terms through the creation of AI generated images.

When entering the term ‘belonging’ into Midjourney, some rather odd results are generated:  A cartoon like image appears, i a figure is entirely isolated from a crowd [see the timeline attached]. Bizarrely, the visual represents the opposite of belonging. The results are entirely inconsistent and cannot always be justified or linked to the original prompt. When using the phrase mother as a prompt, a skeleton of a woman holding a dead baby is generated. Midjourney is data-based, which means its responses can seem cold, prescribed and detached.

There’s a strong alienation between the artist and the artwork when using Midjourney. Striking visuals are formed that usually have little to no personal connection to the artist. It takes away the craft, talent and control required to produce such complex renders. However, this elimination of practice and skill also means that the medium can be operated by anyone. Alongside skill, process is another important element to creative practitioners. We record our thoughts and attempts through portfolios and diaries, where the journey becomes equally as important as the outcome.

A major defect in the use of Midjourney is the lack of traceability of AI decision-making. One can only speculate on what images and information Midjourney has chosen to inform the visuals produced. To retrace the tracks of Ai, I have investigated the functionality of Midjourney. The manufacturers claimed that it uses data that is constantly renewed, allowing for the never-ending creation of bespoke imagery, however the result make one question that.  In contrast, he largest and most image-reliant social media platform is Instagram. We are constantly updating our stories and posts, as well as liking and saving posts that resonate with us. It has inherent traceability. The project attempt to utilise this traceability to create a clear thread for Midjourney, particularly through the hashtags used under the images, using this to explore the theme of belonging.

Belonging, home and other personal themes are difficult to interpret visually. There are no prescribed, universal images for these subjects. This project aims to manipulate AI into producing images for such personal themes, and speculates on the potential data used to inform the initial visuals.  It uses the context I associate with belonging as a case study. The prompts entered into Midjourney have been extracted from a personal logbook that I have kept throughout the entirety of the module. It uses Instagram as a library or data source of images, linking them to the keywords: home, mother, middle eastern, cooking and the dining table. The logbook helped in defining the basic terminology of my “place” of belonging as well recording my initial exploration of different mediums.